A native fish species nearly completely wiped out by the 2019 bushfires and attacks from introduced trout is back from the brink of extinction.
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In what was described as a "world first", researchers at Charles Sturt university created an artificial habitat at their Thurgoona centre in southern NSW to breed stocky galaxias in captivity in a bid to save them from certain annihilation.
The university's Amina Price said an ambitious program was put into place to rescue and repopulate the fish which are endemic to the Snowy Mountains region.
"There are only about 5000 left in the wild," she said. Dr Price said the first babies born in captivity emerged from their eggs in early 2023.
"This represents a significant step forward in the conservation of this species," she said. "No one has ever been able to achieve this before.
"The reason why there's so few of them is actually largely because of trout, where we've got trout in the system, galaxias can't persist.
"It's taken three years for us to figure out how we can do it now that we have, we can scale up what we're doing and put good numbers of these fish back into the environment and start to build their populations.
"As we build the program, we'll be able to create more and more population.
"This is a significant achievement as the project has received limited funding, requiring staff to volunteer many hours over weekends and holidays."
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Executive director of the Gulbali Institute for Agriculture, Water and Environment, Lee Baumgartner, said construction of a simulated habitat, that can mimic the temperature and sunlight regime of the Snowy Mountains, was required.
"This provided the opportunity for Charles Sturt staff to generate significant knowledge on the species while their natural home, the Tantangara Creek, was unsuitable for them to return," Professor Baumgartner said.
